The Last Chronicle of Barset eBook

‘Oh, Dr Tempest,’ said Mary Walker, ’I
am so sorry that you have joined the bishop.’

‘Are you, my dear?’ said he. ’It
is generally thought well that a parish clergyman
should agree with his bishop.’

’But you know, Mr Tempest, that you don’t
agree with your bishop generally.’

’Then it is the more fortunate that I shall
be able to agree with him on this occasion.’

Major Grantly was present at the dinner, and ventured
to ask the doctor in the course of the evening what
he thought would be done. ’I should not
venture to ask such a question, Dr Tempest,’
he said, ’unless I had the strongest possible
reason to justify my anxiety.’

‘I don’t know that I can tell you anything,
Major Grantly,’ said the doctor. ’We
did not even see Mr Crawley today. But the real
truth is that he must stand or fall as the jury shall
find him guilty or not guilty. It would be the
same in any profession. Could a captain in the
army hold up his head in his regiment after he had
been tried and found guilty of stealing twenty pounds?’

‘I don’t think he could,’ said the
major.

‘Neither can a clergyman,’ said the doctor.
’The bishop can neither make him nor mar him.
It is the jury that must do it.’

CHAPTER LV

FRAMLEY PARSONAGE

At this time Grace Crawley was at Framley Parsonage.
Old Lady Lufton’s strategy had been quite intelligible,
but some people said that in point of etiquette and
judgment and moral conduct, it was indefensible.
Her vicar, Mr Robarts, had been selected to be one
of the clergymen who was to sit in ecclesiastical
judgment upon Mr Crawley, and while he was so sitting
Mr Crawley’s daughter was staying in Mr Robarts’s
house as visitor with his wife. It might be that
there was no harm in this. Lady Lufton, when
the apparent impropriety was pointed out to her by
no less a person than Archdeacon Grantly, ridiculed
the idea. ’My dear archdeacon,’ Lady
Lufton had said, ’we all know the bishop to be
such a fool and the bishop’s wife to be such
a knave, that we cannot allow ourselves to be governed
in this matter by ordinary rules. Do you not
think that it is expedient to show how utterly we disregard
his judgment and her malice?’ The archdeacon
had hesitated much before he spoke to Lady Lufton,
whether he should address himself to her or to Mr
Robarts—­or indeed to Mrs Robarts. But
he had become aware that the proposition as to the
visit had originated with Lady Lufton, and he had
therefore decided on speaking to her. He had not
condescended to say a word as to his son, nor would
he so condescend. Nor could he go from Lady Lufton
to Mr Robarts, having once failed with her ladyship.
Indeed, in giving him his due, we must acknowledge
that his disapprobation of Lady Lufton’s strategy
arose rather from his true conviction as to its impropriety,
than from any fear lest this attention paid to Miss